I've just been at a meeting at my previous workplace, which is upstairs from where I work now. Now I just want to weep. I so much miss working there. I had both colleagues and friends (I still have friends there), while now I just have workmates, and a couple of people who are my colleagues in the sense that we do vaguely the same thing. I have almost nothing in common, personally or academically, with any of the people who work with me.

I don't want to minimise the awfulness of losing one's job altogether, and I'm really sorry to hear about your situation, aaa. I'm very lucky to have a job, especially one with flexible hours and opportunities to do at least some things I enjoy doing, and a minimal commute every day. I just miss feeling happy about going to work in the morning, instead of avoiding it and working from home as much as possible.